There are presently two systems of showing motion pictures at commercial theaters; the Platter System and the Reel to Reel System. The Reel to Reel system is archaic and is being phased into the Platter System almost entirely.
Both systems involve the use of shipping reels containing approximately 2,000 feet of film. The present invention is designed for use with the Platter System which requires that the film on the separate shipping reels be spliced together making a single film length up to approximately 30,000 feet long, for a continuous showing up to approximately 41/2 hours without stopping.
There are two horizontal platters, and the film is automatically unwound from one platter, passes through the projector and rewound on the second horizontal platter. When the picture is last shown and must be prepared for shipping, the film must be de-spliced into its original shipping segments, which segments are individually rewound on separate 2,000 foot shipping reels.
This process is presently being done manually. The present invention is the first device to accomplish the de-splicing and rewinding automatically while the last presentation is being shown, thus saving much time, labor and effort, plus the labor cost of the substantial number of hours to accomplish the manual de-splicing and rewinding operation.
Therefore, one of the principal objects of the present invention is to provide a device to receive the leading end of a substantial length of spliced film, which can be up to 30,000 feet or more, and which sequentially de-splices the film in the areas of the original splices, and winds the de-spliced segments onto separate shipping reels. This operation is accomplished during the last presentation, before the film is, for example, to be shipped for presentation in another theater.